Formal peace negotiations with Colombia’s second-largest guerrilla group, Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), began in Ecuador on 7 February. There was doubt until the eleventh hour as to whether formal talks between the government and the ELN would actually be launched or whether they would once again be postponed indefinitely because of insuperable differences. But the government agreed to pardon two ELN prisoners, and in return the guerrilla group released its last known political hostage, Odín Sánchez Montes de Oca, as well as a soldier it had captured in the eastern department of Arauca shortly beforehand, Fredy Moreno Mahecha.End of preview - This article contains approximately 855 words.
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